This is not a random list of prominent Chicago lawyers. These are some of the chapter authors in a new book, Your Witness: Lessons on Cross-Examination and Life from Great Chicago Trial Lawyers.Lawyers Steven F. Molo and James R. Figliulo collected and edited these essays, along with Chicago Tribune reporter Maurice Possley, credited by Molo and Figliulo as the project's managing editor "who took what were sometimes well intended but hurried writings of busy trial lawyers and transformed them into the smooth prose that grace these pages." Chicago lawyer Scott Turow provides a foreward.
This is the kind of book that you can open to any random page and start enjoying. That's what I did after the publicist for the Law Bulletin Publishing Company was kind enough to send me a copy.
At first I thought the book skewed too heavily toward criminal cases -- especially criminal cases in Federal Court -- but that was a consequence of where I jumped in... and also of the fact that more criminal cases come to trial than civil ones. Most of the stories about civil cases have to do with the skewering of expert witnesses. I never did tote up figures to determine how many stories dealt with criminal cases and how many with civil cases.
11. James S. Montana, Jr. ● 12. Marc W. Martin ● 13. Peter C. John ● 14. Patrick A. Tuite ● 15. Walter Jones, Jr. ● 16. Chris Gair ● 17. James R. Figliulo ● 18. Donald G. Kempf, Jr. ● 19. Dan K. Webb ● 20. Lorna Propes ● 21. Terence F. MacCarthy....
And these are, for the most part, stories. Each of the authors is trying to convey something of the art of cross-examination as he or she has learned it, by trial and error, but the lessons are all framed by or conveyed in stories. In a "cautionary note" at the front the volume, Messrs. Molo and Figliulo warn that all the stories in the book are "based on real-world trial experience, but as with most good stories, they all may not be entirely precise." Some stories, they add, may "have gotten better with age." In other words, it is just possible that a few of these stories might not hold up... exactly... under vigorous cross-examination. It doesn't matter. It doesn't detract one little bit from the reader's enjoyment or the value of the lessons conveyed. (And some authors seem to have dug out actual transcripts from the trials about which they write.)
Many of the stories included in Your Witness are what might be called "war stories," the kinds of stories that lawyers of all stripes tell over lunch or at cocktail parties. But the authors here are big-time, successful lawyers and this makes their stories that much more entertaining and useful. Two of the chapter authors, Michael Coffield and Don Hubert, passed away during the preparation of the book; a third, Judge Pincham, died after the book went to press. Messrs. Molo and Figliulo estimate that the lawyer-authors of these chapters aggregate roughly 1,600 years of trial experience. These are stories that will teach the reader many things -- even readers who aren't trial lawyers.
Most of the authors write about themselves -- their own successes (and failures). This is as it should be: You will not often find many shrinking violets in any group of trial lawyers. Many, as was famously said of Theodore Roosevelt, want to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral. But several of the authors include appreciations of other trial lawyers they have seen in action. Pay particular attention here. In a setting like this, the authors have no motive to bestow false praise.
22. Thomas M. Durkin ● 23. Charles W. Douglas ● 24. James D. Montgomery ● 25. Robert A. Clifford ● 26. William J. Kunkle ● 27. Edward L. Foote ● 28. Michael T. Hannafan ● 29. Michael J. Morrissey ● 30. C. Barry Montgomery ● 31. Jo-Anne Wolfson....
Your Witness will be of interest to people outside Chicago, too. Even though all of these lawyers are... or were... based in Chicago, several of the tales are set in other jurisdictions, such as Judge Leighton's story of a federal habeus corpus proceeding in Oxford, Mississippi in the late 1950s. You may find Judge Leighton's account of his conversation with the U.S. Marshal on that occasion particularly powerful; I thought it conveyed the essence of that time and place in a third of a page.
32. Matthias A. Lydon ● 33. Steven P. Handler ● 34. Richard A. Halprin ● 35. Thomas M. Crisham ● 36. Michael D. Monico ● 37. Steven F. Molo ● 38. Donald Hubert ● 39. Raymond J. Smith ● 40. Jeffrey E. Stone ● 41. Robert L. Byman ● 42. Philip S. Beck....
While each of the authors is focusing on the technique of cross-examination, the book is not repetitive. Sure, the standard rules are set out many times -- but then the authors tell you why it didn't make sense to follow this rule or that one in a particular case. In Your Witness you'll learn, for example, never to ask a question on cross to which you don't know the answer... unless the answer doesn't matter... or unless the possible reward of securing Answer A outweighs the risk of obtaining Answer B. Many of the writers stress that cross-examination is an opportunity for the lawyer to tell the client's story through a witness -- but to do this the lawyer must be the focus of the jury's attention, not the witness. A variety of entertaining suggestions are offered as to how this may be done. One overriding lesson is presented: This is art, not science.
This isn't a book that a lawyer will have in the briefcase during trial... but it may be on the table by the bed at home as the fully prepared lawyer looks for inspiration for the witnesses to be crossed tomorrow....
43. Anton R. Valukas ● 44. Patricia Bobb ● 45. Allan A. Ackerman ● 46. Thomas M. Breen ● 47. Vincent J. Connelly ● 48. Manuel Sanchez ● 49. William J. Martin ● 50. Thomas A. Demetrio
Another note at the beginning of Your Witness advises that the "authors' royalties, less expenses, are being donated to The Chicago Bar Foundation, the charitable arm of the Chicago Bar Association." That's not the only reason to buy Your Witness, but if that helps you make that decision, that's all well and good, isn't it?
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